mondrian

A Dutch painter, Piet Mondrian provided inspiration to one of fashion's greats, Yves Saint Laurent for his iconic collection in 1965/66. Piet Mondrian started out with landscapes but proceeded to be inspired by the foundation of nature to create deceptively simple "compositions". These compositions as he liked to call them consisted of rectangles of primary colours- red, yellow and blue, and white or black, outlined by bold black lines. Intrigued by Cubism but not exactly a member of the movement, he belonged to the movement of neo-plasticsm which believes that art should not be a copy of real objects but the expression of the absolutes of life. And the absolutes of life according to them are horizontal and vertical lines.

He said "I construct lines and color combinations on a flat surface, in order to express general beauty with the utmost awareness. Nature (or, that which I see) inspires me, puts me, as with any painter, in an emotional state so that an urge comes about to make something, but I want to come as close as possible to the truth and abstract everything from that, until I reach the foundation (still just an external foundation!) of things…
I believe it is possible that, through horizontal and vertical lines constructed with awareness, but not with calculation, led by high intuition, and brought to harmony and rhythm, these basic forms of beauty, supplemented if necessary by other direct lines or curves, can become a work of art, as strong as it is true."

In 1965/66 Yves Saint Laurent showcased his Mondrian collection to audience who loved it. It paved the way for colour blocking and high contrast in garments and spawned many look-alikes. If you get lucky on E-bay and land one of the originals in high quality geometrically blocked wool jersey, good for you!

facehunter snapped these ladies sporting mondrian and mondrian like art.